Forget the American Dream. It has been increasingly unlikely for decades. Economist Tom Hertz's research shows that by 2003 the vast majority of Americans were worse off, even though a higher number than ever thought "if you work hard you can get rich."
But it seems like Americans finally got it- the streets are not paved with gold, at least not the streets where most of us live. The present is pretty insecure and the future looks worse. That's why this holiday season you should buy the little ones toys that will give them a more realistic idea of the grim future that awaits them.
A post on Huffington Post was all about toys not to buy your kids this holiday season. But actually, you should buy some of these toys because they will create an imagination based in the real and really depressing chances for their future. As 80% of Americans got poorer in the past three decades, we lied to the kids. We used to teach our kids to dream big about becoming super rich and/or super famous. The Bratz dolls were all about the bling. Barbie was always a Princess.
But now we are actually introducing reality into the little ones' world of play. Rather than preparing them for completely impossible futures as the ruling classes, we're preparing them for the jobs they're actually going to face.
For girls we have the "Girls Only Cleaning Trolley." This toy is a great way to teach your daughters that they are probably going to work for minimum wage (if they're lucky) in the service industry cleaning up rich folks' hotel rooms. Dream of being a maid.
If little Brittney balks at having to play at being the maid, offer her the far more glamorous and equally likely career of sex worker. That's right: pole dancing for the prepubescent set.
Or Rickshaw Operator
15 Toys NOT To Buy Your Kids This Christmas (PHOTOS).
Teaching our children to be greedy- especially when their chances of making it "big" were getting slimmer all the time- was not a great lesson. Children who grew up in the post-Reagan, greed is good decades of the 1980s and '90s are not having a great time of it now that they're in the economy and realizing food stamps are the only way they're going to eat this week.
On the other hand, I'm not sure preparing our children for minimum wage jobs in dehumanizing industries is a great lesson either.
How about we give them clipboards and teach them to be "community activists' or we give them gardening tools and teach them to grow their own food? Maybe a little union organizing game? Surely these would be better dreams for the children than pole dancer and rickshaw driver?
If little Kyle is sad that he can't prepare for a career as a maid or stripper, offer him these two excellent career choices: Airport Security
